Charming world of mobile phones

What if the invention of mobile phones never happened? Well, we wouldn't be able to communicate the way we do now. We have a lot to thank mobile phone history for. Mobile phone history started in 1947 when Bell Labs engineers W. Rae Young and Douglas H. Ring realized that utilizing small hexagonal cells can increase the capacity of mobile phones for traffic at a substantial rate. However, at that time, the technology to do that was still nonexistent.

Mobile Telephone system A (MTA) was the first mobile phone system that was fully automatic. This was created by Ericsson and was released commercially in Sweden during 1956. Mobile phones during this time weighed 40 kg. Thankfully, mobile phones have evolved into smaller versions since then. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first handheld mobile phone became available to the U.S. market in 1983. These mobile phones became increasingly popular during the 1980s because of the introduction of "cellular" phones which were based in cellular networks that had several base stations located close to each other. Analog transmissions were being used by all mobile phone systems. It was Motorola that introduced the first truly portable handheld phone.

The introduction of mobile phone systems such as IS-136, iDEN, IS-95, and GSM started during the 1990s. It was in the United States that the first digital cellular phone call was made. In 1991, Radiolinja, the first GSM network opened in Finland. Along with the introduction of 2G (2nd generation) systems were the tiny 100-200g handheld phones which instantly became the norm. This change was made possible by improvements in batteries and electronics. The 2G phone systems were characterized by the introduction of fast and advanced phone to network signaling as well as digital circuit switched transmission.

Roughly ten years later, 3G (3rd generation) was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan. These mobiles already offer TV and video services, which has made these gadgets even more popular. Quite a number of these phones can also connect to the Internet, which makes them multimedia computers already. It is said that in the future, 4G (4th generation) system will also be introduced. This will pave the way for low cost, high speed data transmission. This will also offer users with a high degree of synchronization and personalization between a wide array of user applications.

With the fast development of technology nowadays, mobile phone history will surely evolve and offer us with new innovations.

The following is a list of mobile phone terms used around the world.

Mobile phones are known as:

cep telefonu (pocket phone) in Turkeycellulair, mobile or telefon in Lebanon.cell phones or cell in Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United States. (Written as one word, cellphone, in New Zealand).celular or cel in Albania.celular,and even celula or a bit older term: movicom (because of the first company to have a cell phone network) in Uruguay.celulares (singular form celular) in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other Spanish-speaking countries except Spain as the Spanish word for Cellular. It is also used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil.clamshell in the United States and UK, a phone that opens up to reveal the keypad, microphone, and earpiece; these are typically more compact than other designs. Often called "flip phones" (although 'flip phone' is a trademark of Motorola). Clamshell phones became very popular in the United States after the introduction of Motorola's StarTAC in 1996. While this style referred to as a "clamshell" (a term that is already outdated), few if any people referred to their telephone as a clamshell. Rather, this term is used to refer to the cell phone style.dzhiesem (джиесем) (from GSM) in Bulgaria, refers only to GSM mobile phonesdi động (mobile phone) , điện thoại cầm tay (handy phone) or môbai in Vietnam.farsími (Official for all mobile phone systems), Gemsi (means young sheep, referring to GSM), GSM-sími (For phones using the GSM System), or NMT-sími (For phones using the Nordic Mobile Telephone-system) in Icelandfònaichean làimhe (meaning hand phone; singular form fòn làimhe) or fònaichean phoca (meaning pocket phone; singular form fòn phoca) in Scottish Gaelicffôn symudol in Welshfón póca, teileafón póca ('pocket telephone') or guthán soghluaiste ('mobile telephone') in Irishgar utas (Mongolian: Гар утас), meaning "hand phone" is used in Mongolian. Informally, both gar (hand) and utas (phone) is used.GSMs in Belgium (written gsm in Dutch and GSM in French).hand phones or handphones (핸드폰) in many Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, encompassing cell phones or any wireless phones connected to telecommunication providers. In South Korea, it is also called hyudae jeonhwa (휴대 전화; 携帶電話) or hyudaepon (휴대폰).handyphone in the Philippines by Globe Telecom (used by the main mobile branch of Globe, Globe Handyphone)Handy (plural form Handys), pronounced /hɛndi/, a pseudo-anglicism that is used in Austria and Germany for a mobile phone (rare alternative spelling: Händi). In German, the word "Handy" has the meaning of "Hand-Telefon" or "handgehaltenes Mobiltelefon" (translated to English: "handheld mobile telephone"). The term possibly derived from the 1940s product name Handie-Talkie for a handheld military radio. (The backpack version was introduced as Walkie-Talkie.)telefon-hamráh or hamráh (تلفن همراه, literally companion phone) in Iran,mobile is also very common in informal conversation .jawwal (mobile) in Saudi Arabiaګرزندوی (Gharzandoi) (mobile)& تثلفون همراه in Pashto and Dari (Persian), Afghanistankeitai (携帯, portable, short for keitai denwa, 携帯電話, portable telephone) in Japan; semantic development is very close to words like mobile. "Handy Phone" is also used (ハンディフォン)khelyawi (cellular) in Lebanonkinitó (κινητό), short for kinitó tiléfono (κινητό τηλέφωνο), which means mobile phone in Greece and Cypruskomórki (singular form komórka) or telefon komórkowy, meaning cells/cellular phone in Polandmahmool (محمول) or Jawwal (جوَّال') or Khelyawi (خليوي) or Mobile (موبايل) in Arabicmatkapuhelimet (literally travel-phones, singular form matkapuhelin) or kännykät (singular form kännykkä, very close in meaning to the German Handy) in Finland; actually trademarked by Nokia in 1987 but fallen into generic use and would probably not be upheld any more if contested in a court of lawmoby, short for "mobile" (in the sense of "mobile phone"), a slang term in everyday usage in the UK.mobieltje in the Netherlandsmobifon (мобифон), a contraction of mobilen telefon (мобилен телефон) in Bulgaria, which came into usage with the introduction of 1G mobile phones. As GSM mobile phones became more widely used, some started calling them dzhiesem as to distinguish them from 1G phones. The remaining 1G phones are still referred to as mobifon, while GSM phones are referred to by most as dzhiesem, although it is looked down upon by some.mobil in Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Slovakia and Swedenmobilais telefons or mobilais in Latviamobile, short for "mobile phone" (in the sense of "cellular phone"), a term in everyday usage in most English-speaking countries such as the Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, UK. Also commonly used by industry insiders in the United States.mobilka (мобілка) as a slang term in Ukrainemobilni telefon (мобилни телефон) in Serbia. Abbreviated forms are frequently used: mobilni (мобилни) or just mob (моб)mobilní telefony (singular form mobilní telefon), or simply mobily (mobil) in Czech Republicmobilny telefon (= mobile phone), or mobilnik, mobila for short. Older names are sotovy telefon (= cell phone) and trubka, truba (= handset) in Russiamòbils in Andorramobiltelefon in Denmark, Germany (Mobiltelefon, formerly Mobiltelephon, is the official German term), Hungary, Norway, Sweden (sometimes nalle in Sweden, meaning teddy bear translated to English, originally referring to the term yuppie-nalle since until the late 1980s only rich yuppies could afford them and they showed them off in a way that looked as they were carrying a yuppie teddy bear, nowadays only nalle is used representing that people always carry them around and feel insecure if they misplace them, like a child missing their teddy bear)mobilus telefonas or mobilus in Lithuaniamobitel in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. They are named after a company called Mobitel which was the first national cell phone network operator in Slovenia. The name is made from the words for Mobile and Telephone.móviles (móvil) in Spanish and mòbils (mòbil) in Catalan in Spainmue thue (มือถือ, literally hand-held) in Thailandmuthophone (phone in the palm) in Bangladesh. This term is used because mobile phone can be held and used in palm. This term is popular among teenagers and in the literary world of Dhaka.nalle in Sweden and other Nordic/Scandinavian countries. In Scandinavian, 'nalle' actually means 'teddy bear'; connoting the pet-like status which mobile phones sometimes have.Natel ("Nationales Autotelefon") in Switzerlandponsel (telepon selular, cellular phones), or HP (shortened from Hand Phone, but pronounced ha-pe, not like HP in English) in Indonesianpoŝtelefonoj ("pocket phones", pronounced poshtelefonoy) by users of Esperantoportable (literally portable) in Francesau kei (Simplified Chinese:手机 Traditional Chinese:手機), Cantonese transliteration for "手机" or "手機", a similar term to that of handphone or mobile phone but is translated to mean hand's device or hand's device telephone, used in Canonese speaking areas Hong Kong and Guangdong Province of China.shou ji (Simplified Chinese:手机 Traditional Chinese:手機), the Chinese pinyin spelling translation for "手机" or "手機", a similar term to that of handphone or mobile phone but is translated to mean hand's device or hand's device telephone, used in Mandrin speaking areas Mainland China and Taiwan.slider, a form where the two halves slide together. This design allows the main display to be shown while the keypad is hidden. [where is it used?]sotka (short form of cellular phone in Russian language) in Uzbekistantelefon bimbit (mobile phone) in Bahasa Malaysiatelefon selolari (cellular phone) in formal Hebrew. Most of the Israelis say pelephone (פלאפון) like the name of the first mobile company.telefon mobil (pl. telefoane mobile), but the short form is more common: mobil (mobile) in Romania; celular (pl. celulare) is also commontelefonino (meaning small phone), or cellulare (short form for telefono cellulare) in Italytelefonito (meaning little phone) in Argentina.telefoonka gacanta (literally "hand's phone") in Somaliatelemóvel ("telefone móvel", "mobile telephone") in Portugal, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Macau and Mozambique.telephono cellular by speakers of Interlinguateleponong selyular (cellular telephone) in the Philippines, used when speaking in Filipinoxing dong dian hua (行動電話) in Taiwan, literal Chinese translation of "mobile phone".A mobile phone (also known as a wireless phone, cell phone, or cellular telephone) is a short-range, electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialised base stations known as cell sites. In addition to the standard voice function of a mobile phone, telephone, current mobile phones may support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones).

OverviewAccording to internal memos, American Telephone & Telegraph discussed developing a wireless phone in 1915, but were afraid deployment of the technology could undermine its monopoly on wired service in the U.S.[2]

Japan's first commercial mobile phone service was launched by the NTT in 1978. By November 2007, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world had reached 3.3 billion, or half of the human population (although some users have multiple subscriptions, or inactive subscriptions), which also makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world.

The first mobile phone to enable internet connectivity and wireless email, the Nokia Communicator, was released in 1996, creating a new category of multi-use devices called smartphones. In 1999 the first mobile internet service was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan under the i-Mode service. By 2007 over 798 million people around the world accessed the internet or equivalent mobile internet services such as WAP and i-Mode at least occasionally using a mobile phone rather than a personal computer.

Cellular systems

Mobile phone towerMobile phones send and receive radio signals with any number of cell site base stations fitted with microwave antennas. These sites are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building, located throughout populated areas, then connected to a cabled communication

UsageBy civilians

This Railfone found on some Amtrak trains in North America uses cellular technology.See also: List of mobile network operatorsAn increasing number of countries, particularly in Europe, now have more mobile phones than people. According to the figures from Eurostat, the European Union's in-house statistical office, Luxembourg had the highest mobile phone penetration rate at 158 mobile subscriptions per 100 people, closely followed by Lithuania and Italy. In Hong Kong the penetration rate reached 139.8% of the population in July 2007. Over 50 countries have mobile phone subscription penetration rates higher than that of the population and the Western European average penetration rate was 110% in 2007 (source Informa 2007). The U.S. currently has one of the lowest rates of mobile phone penetrations in the industrialised world at 85%.

There are over five hundred million active mobile phone accounts in China, as of 2007, but the total penetration rate there still stands below 50%. The total number of mobile phone subscribers in the world was estimated at 2.14 billion in 2005. The subscriber count reached 2.7 billion by end of 2006 according to Informa[citation needed], and 3.3 billion by November, 2007, thus reaching an equivalent of over half the planet's population. Around 80% of the world's population has access to mobile phone coverage, as of 2006. This figure is expected to increase to 90% by the year 2010.

In some developing countries with little "landline" telephone infrastructure, mobile phone use has quadrupled in the last decade. The rise of mobile phone technology in developing countries is often cited as an example of the leapfrog effect. Many remote regions in the third world went from having no telecommunications infrastructure to having satellite based communications systems. At present, Africa has the largest growth rate of cellular subscribers in the world, its markets expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian markets. The availability of prepaid or 'pay-as-you-go' services, where the subscriber is not committed to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth in Africa as well as in other continents.

On a numerical basis, India is the largest growth market, adding about 6 million mobile phones every month. With 256.55 million total landline and mobile phones, market penetration in the country is still low at 22.52%. India expects to reach 500 million subscribers by the end of 2010. Simultaneously, landline phone ownership is decreasing gradually and accounts for approximately 40 million connections.

There are three major technical standards for the current generation of mobile phones and networks, and two major standards for the next generation 3G phones and networks. All European and African countries and many Asian countries have adopted a single system, GSM, which is the only technology available on all continents and in most countries and covers over 74% of all subscribers on mobile networks. In many countries, such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, India,, South Korea, and Vietnam, GSM co-exists with other internationally adopted standards such as CDMA and TDMA, as well as national standards such as iDEN in the USA and PDC in Japan. Over the past five years several dozen mobile operators (carriers) have abandoned networks on TDMA and CDMA technologies, switching over to GSM.

With third generation (3G) networks, which are also known as IMT-2000 networks, about three out of four networks are on the W-CDMA (also known as UMTS) standard, usually seen as the natural evolution path for GSM and TDMA networks. One in four 3G networks is on the CDMA2000 1x EV-DO technology. Some analysts count a previous stage in CDMA evolution, CDMA2000 1x RTT, as a 3G technology whereas most standardization experts count only CDMA2000 1x EV-DO as a true 3G technology. Because of this difference in interpreting what is 3G, there is a wide variety in subscriber counts. As of June 2007, on the narrow definition there are 200 million subscribers on 3G networks. By using the more broad definition, the total subscriber count of 3G phone users is 475 million.

Culture and customs

Cellular phones allow people to communicate from almost anywhere at their leisure.Between the 1980s and the 2000s, the mobile phone has gone from being an expensive item used by the business elite to a pervasive, personal communications tool for the general population. In most countries, mobile phones outnumber land-line phones, with fixed landlines numbering 1.3 billion but mobile subscriptions 3.3 billion at the end of 2007.

In many markets from Japan and South Korea , to Scandinavia, to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, most children age 8-9 have mobile phones and the new accounts are now opened for customers aged 6 and 7. Where mostly parents tend to give hand-me-down used phones to their youngest children, in Japan already new cameraphones are on the market whose target age group is under 10 years of age, introduced by KDDI in February 2007. The USA also lags on this measure, as in the US so far, about half of all children have mobile phones.[13] In many young adults' households it has supplanted the land-line phone. Mobile phone usage is banned in some countries, such as North Korea and restricted in some other countries such as Burma.

Given the high levels of societal mobile phone service penetration, it is a key means for people to communicate with each other. The SMS feature spawned the "texting" sub-culture amongst younger users. In December 1993, the first person-to-person SMS text message was transmitted in Finland. Currently, texting is the most widely used data service; 1.8 billion users generated $80 billion of revenue in 2006 (source ITU). Many phones offer Instant Messenger services for simple, easy texting. Mobile phones have Internet service (e.g. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode), offering text messaging via e-mail in Japan, South Korea, China, and India. Most mobile internet access is much different from computer access, featuring alerts, weather data, e-mail, search engines, instant messages, and game and music downloading; most mobile internet access is hurried and short.

The mobile phone can be a fashion totem custom-decorated to reflect the owner's personality. This aspect of the mobile telephony business is, in itself, an industry, e.g. ringtone sales amounted to $3.5 billion in 2005.

The use of a mobile phone is prohibited in some train company carriagesMobile phone use can be an important matter of social discourtesy: phones ringing during funerals or weddings; in toilets, cinemas and theatres. Some book shops, libraries, bathrooms, cinemas, doctors' offices and places of worship prohibit their use, so that other patrons will not be disturbed by conversations. Some facilities install signal-jamming equipment to prevent their use, although in many countries, including the US, such equipment is illegal. Some new auditoriums have installed wire mesh in the walls to make a Faraday cage, which prevents signal penetration without violating signal jamming laws.

Trains, particularly those involving long-distance services, often offer a "quiet carriage" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking carriage of the past. In the UK however many users tend to ignore this as it is rarely enforced, especially if the other carriages are crowded and they have no choice but to go in the "quiet carriage". In Japan, it is generally considered impolite to talk using a phone on any train -- e-mailing is generally the mode of mobile communication. Mobile phone usage on local public transport is also increasingly seen as a nuisance; the city of Graz, for instance, has mandated a total ban of mobile phones on its tram and bus network in 2008 (though texting and emailing is still allowed).

Mobile phone use on aircraft is starting to be allowed with several airlines already offering the ability to use phones during flights. Mobile phone use during flights used to be prohibited and many airlines still claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Shut-off mobile phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics; the concern is partially based on the crash of Crossair Flight 498. The recommendation why phones should not be used during take-off and landing, even on planes that allow calls or messaging, is so that passengers pay attention to the crew for any possible accident situations, as most airplane accidents happen on take-off and landing.

By government agencies

Law enforcementMain article: Lawful interceptionLaw enforcement have used mobile phone evidence in a number of different ways. Evidence about the physical location of an individual at a given time can be obtained by triangulating the individual's cellphone between several cellphone towers. This triangulation technique can be used to show that an individual's cellphone was at a certain location at a certain time. The concerns over terrorism and terrorist use of technology prompted an inquiry by the British House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee into the use of evidence from mobile phone devices, prompting leading mobile telephone forensic specialists to identify forensic techniques available in this area. NIST have published guidelines and procedures for the preservation, acquisition, examination, analysis, and reporting of digital information present on mobile phones can be found under the NIST Publication SP800-101.

In the UK in 2000 it was claimed that recordings of mobile phone conversations made on the day of the Omagh bombing were crucial to the police investigation. In particular, calls made on two mobile phones which were tracked from south of the Irish border to Omagh and back on the day of the bombing, were considered of vital importance.

Further example of criminal investigations using mobile phones is the initial location and ultimate identification of the terrorists of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. In the attacks, mobile phones had been used to detonate the bombs. However, one of the bombs failed to detonate, and the SIM card in the corresponding mobile phone gave the first serious lead about the terrorists to investigators. By tracking the whereabouts of the SIM card and correlating other mobile phones that had been registered in those areas, police were able to locate the terrorists.

Disaster responseThe Finnish government decided in 2005 that the fastest way to warn citizens of disasters was the mobile phone network. In Japan, mobile phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge . In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones. An interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress. In Finland rescue services suggest hikers carry mobile phones in case of emergency even when deep in the forests beyond cellular coverage, as the radio signal of a cellphone attempting to connect to a base station can be detected by overflying rescue aircraft with special detection gear. Also, users in the United States can sign up through their provider for free text messages when an AMBER Alert goes out for a missing person in their area.

However, most mobile phone networks operate close to capacity during normal times and spikes in call volumes caused by widespread emergencies often overload the system just when it is needed the most. Examples reported in the media where this have occurred include the September 11, 2001 attacks, the 2003 Northeast blackouts, the 2005 London Tube bombings, Hurricane Katrina, the 2006 Hawaii earthquake, and the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse.

Under FCC regulations, all mobile telephones must be capable of dialing emergency telephone numbers, regardless of the presence of a SIM card or the payment status of the account.

Business models

Tariff modelsSee also: GSM services#Voice chargesWhen cellular telecoms services were launched, phones and calls were very expensive and early mobile operators (carriers) decided to charge for all air time consumed by the mobile phone user. This resulted in the concept of charging callers for outbound calls and also for receiving calls. As mobile phone call charges diminished and phone adoption rates skyrocketed, more modern operators decided not to charge for incoming calls. Thus some markets have "Receiving Party Pays" models (also known as "Mobile Party Pays"), in which both outbound and received calls are charged, and other markets have "Calling Party Pays" models, by which only making calls produces costs, and receiving calls is free. An exception to this is international roaming tariffs, by which receiving calls are normally also charged.[citation needed]

The European market adopted a "Calling Party Pays" model throughout the GSM environment and soon various other GSM markets also started to emulate this model. As Receiving Party Pays systems have the undesired effect of phone owners keeping their phones turned off to avoid receiving unwanted calls, the total voice usage rates (and profits) in Calling Party Pays countries outperform those in Receiving Party Pays countries.[citation needed] To avoid the problem of users keeping their phone turned off, most Receiving Party Pays countries have either switched to Calling Party Pays, or their carriers offer additional incentives such as a large number of monthly minutes at a sufficiently discounted rate to compensate for the inconvenience.

In most countries today, the person receiving a mobile phone call pays nothing. However, in Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States, one can be charged per minute, for incoming as well as outgoing calls. In the United States and Canada, a few carriers are beginning to offer unlimited received phone calls. For the Chinese mainland, it was reported that both of its two operators will adopt the caller-pays approach as early as January 2007.

The asymmetry of Receiving Party Pays vs Calling Party Pays means a person in a RPP country (such as the US) calling a CPP country (e.g., Europe) pays both the calling charge and the receiving charge and the international toll, while the recipient pays nothing as usual. This is generally reflected in a significantly higher rate to mobile numbers (e.g., 25c/minute vs 3c/minute to a landline). Going the other way there is no difference in rate because the recipient pays the receiving charge. This can make people in CPP countries reluctant to call mobile numbers in RPP countries. There is further asymmetry in that an RPP user can choose a carrier with cheaper incoming minutes, while a CPP user cannot choose a carrier with cheaper RPP-to-CPP rates because these are quoted nationally rather than per carrier. This allows carriers in CPP countries to charge higher rates than would be tolerated in RPP countries.

While some systems of payment are 'pay-as-you-go' where conversation time is purchased and added to a phone unit via an Internet account or in shops or ATMs, other systems are more traditional ones where bills are paid by regular intervals. Pay as you go (also known as "pre-pay") accounts were invented simultaneously in Portugal and Italy and today form more than half of all mobile phone subscriptions. USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Japan and Finland are among the rare countries left where most phones are still contract-based.

One possible alternative is a sim-lock free mobile phone. Sim-lock free mobile phones allow portability between networks so users can use sim cards from various networks and not need to have their phone unlocked.

Impacts

Human health and behaviourMain article: Mobile phone radiation and healthSince the introduction of mobile phones, concerns (both scientific and public) have been raised about the potential health impacts from regular use. But by 2008, American mobile phones transmitted and received more text messages than phone calls. Numerous studies have reported no significant relationship between mobile phone use and health, but the effect of mobile phone usage on health continues to be an area of public concern.

For example, at the request of some of their customers, Verizon created usage controls that meter service and can switch phones off, so that children could get some sleep. There have also been attempts to limit use by persons operating moving trains or automobiles, coaches when writing to potential players on their teams, and movie theater audiences. By one measure, nearly 40% of automobile drivers aged 16 to 30 years old text while driving, and by another, 40% of teenagers said they could text blindfolded.

Mobile phone dermatitisAccording to Reuters, The British Association of Dermatologists is warning of a rash occurring on people’s ears or cheeks caused by an allergic reaction from the nickel surface commonly found on mobile devices’ exteriors. There is also a theory it could even occur on the fingers if someone spends a lot of time text messaging on metal menu buttons. Earlier this year Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues tested 22 popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and found nickel in 10 of the devices.

Safety concernsAs of 2007, several airlines are experimenting with base station and antenna systems installed to the aeroplane, allowing low power, short-range connection of any phones aboard to remain connected to the aircraft's base station.[28] Thus, they would not attempt connection to the ground base stations as during take off and landing.[citation needed] Simultaneously, airlines may offer phone services to their travelling passengers either as full voice and data services, or initially only as SMS text messaging and similar services. The Australian airline Qantas is the first airline to run a test aeroplane in this configuration in the autumn of 2007. Emirates has announced plans to allow limited mobile phone usage on some flights.[citation needed] However, in the past, commercial airlines have prevented the use of cell phones and laptops, due to the assertion that the frequencies emitted from these devices may disturb the radio waves contact of the airplane.

On March 20, 2008, an Emirates flight was the first time voice calls have been allowed in-flight on commercial airline flights. The breakthrough came after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) granted full approval for the AeroMobile system to be used on Emirates. Passengers were able to make and receive voice calls as well as use text messaging. The system automatically came into operation as the Airbus A340-300 reached cruise altitude. Passengers wanting to use the service received a text message welcoming them to the AeroMobile system when they first switched their phones on. The approval by EASA has established that GSM phones are safe to use on airplanes, as the AeroMobile system does not require the modification of aircraft components deemed "sensitive," nor does it require the use of modified phones.

In any case, there are inconsistencies between practices allowed by different airlines and even on the same airline in different countries. For example, Northwest Airlines may allow the use of mobile phones immediately after landing on a domestic flight within the US, whereas they may state "not until the doors are open" on an international flight arriving in the Netherlands. In April 2007 the US Federal Communications Commission officially prohibited passengers' use of cell phones during a flight.

In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the UK and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues.

18 studies have been conducted on the link between cell phones and brain cancer; A review of these studies found that cell phone use of 10 years or more "give a consistent pattern of an increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma". The tumors are found mostly on the side of the head that the cell phone is in contact with. In July 2008, Dr. Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, warned about the radiation from cell phones. He stated that there was no definitive proof of the link between cell phones and brain tumors but there was enough studies that cell phone usage should be reduced as a precaution. Studies are also being done on children and how cell phone radiation affects their brains. When children start using cell phones at a young age, they will have more years to deal with cell phone radiation than adults will who started using cell phones at a later age. Also, children’s brains are still developing and radiation can affect the growth of the brain easier than adults. Children under 8 brains, in fact, absorb twice the amount of radiation that adult’s brains do. To reduce the amount of radiation being absorbed hands free devices can be used or texting could supplement calls. Calls could also be shortened or limit cell phone usage in rural areas. Radiation is found to be higher in areas that are located away from cell phone towers.

EtiquetteMost schools in the United States and Europe have prohibited mobile phones in the classroom, or in school due to the large number of class disruptions that result from their use, and the potential for cheating via text messaging[citation needed]. In the UK, possession of a mobile phone in an examination can result in immediate disqualification from that subject or from all that student's subjects.[33]. Cell phones can also be used for bullying and threats to other students, or displaying inappropriate material in school.

A working group made up of Finnish telephone companies, public transport operators and communications authorities has launched a campaign to remind mobile phone users of courtesy, especially when using mass transit—what to talk about on the phone, and how to. In particular, the campaign wants to impact loud mobile phone usage as well as calls regarding sensitive matters.

Many US cities with subway transit systems underground are studying or have implemented mobile phone reception in their underground tunnels for their riders. Boston, Massachusetts has investigated such usage in their tunnels, although there is a question of usage etiquette and also how to fairly award contracts to carriers.

The issue of mobile communication and etiquette has also become an issue of academic interest. The rapid adoption of the device has resulted in the intrusion of telephony into situations where it was previously not used. This has exposed the implicit rules of courtesy and opened them to reevaluation.

Use by driversMain article: Mobile phones and driving safetyThe use of mobile phones by people who are driving has become increasingly common, either as part of their job, as in the case of delivery drivers who are calling a client, or by commuters who are chatting with a friend. While many drivers have embraced the convenience of using their cellphone while driving, some jurisdictions have made the practice against the law, such as Australia, the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the United Kingdom, consisting of a zero-tolerance system operated in Scotland and a warning system operated in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Officials from these jurisdictions argue that using a mobile phone while driving is an impediment to vehicle operation that can increase the risk of road traffic accidents.

Studies have found vastly different relative risks (RR). Two separate studies using case-crossover analysis each calculated RR at 4, while an epidemiological cohort study found RR, when adjusted for crash-risk exposure, of 1.11 for men and 1.21 for women.

A simulation study from the University of Utah Professor David Strayer compared drivers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% to those conversing on a cell phone, and after controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, the study concluded that cell phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers. Meta-analysis by The Canadian Automobile Association and The University of Illinois found that response time while using both hands-free and hand-held phones was approximately 0.5 standard deviations higher than normal driving (i.e., an average driver, while talking on a cell phone, has response times of a driver in roughly the 40th percentile).

Driving while using a hands-free device is not safer than driving while using a hand-held phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies. epidemiological studies, simulation studies, and meta-analysis.Even with this information, California recently passed a cell phone law that requires drivers who are 18 years of age or older to use a hands-free device while using the phone in the vehicle. Moreover, this law also restricts drivers under the age of 18 from using a mobile phone. This law went into effect on July 1, 2008 with a $20 fine for the first offense and $50 fines for each subsequent conviction. The consistency of increased crash risk between hands-free and hand-held phone use is at odds with legislation in over 30 countries that prohibit hand-held phone use but allow hands-free. Scientific literature is mixed on the dangers of talking on a phone versus those of talking with a passenger, with the Accident Research Unit at the University of Nottingham finding that the number of utterances was usually higher for mobile calls when compared to blindfolded and non-blindfolded passengers, but the University of Illinois meta-analysis concluding that passenger conversations were just as costly to driving performance as cell phone ones.

Environmental impacts

Cellular antenna disguised to look like a treeLike all high structures, cellular antenna masts pose a hazard to low flying aircraft. Towers over a certain height or towers that are close to airports or heliports are normally required to have warning lights. There have been reports that warning lights on cellular masts, TV-towers and other high structures can attract and confuse birds. US authorities estimate that millions of birds are killed near communication towers in the country each year.

Some cellular antenna towers have been camouflaged to make them less obvious on the horizon, and make them look more like a tree.

An example of the way mobile phones and mobile networks have sometimes been perceived as a threat is the widely reported and later discredited claim that mobile phone masts are associated with the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which has reduced bee hive numbers by up to 75% in many areas, especially near cities in the US. The Independent newspaper cited a scientific study claiming it provided evidence for the theory that mobile phone masts are a major cause in the collapse of bee populations, with controlled experiments demonstrating a rapid and catastrophic effect on individual hives near masts. Mobile phones were in fact not covered in the study, and the original researchers have since emphatically disavowed any connection between their research, mobile phones, and CCD, specifically indicating that the Independent article had misinterpreted their results and created "a horror story". While the initial claim of damage to bees was widely reported, the corrections to the story were almost non-existent in the media.

See also: Electronic wasteThere are more than 500 million used mobile phones in the US sitting on shelves or in landfills , and it is estimated that over 125 million will be discarded this year alone. The problem is growing at a rate of more than two million phones per week, putting tons of toxic waste into landfills daily. Several companies offer to buy back and recycle mobile phones from users. In the United States many unwanted but working mobile phones are donated to women's shelters to allow emergency communication.

HistoryMain article: History of mobile phonesIn 1908, U.S. Patent 887,357 for a wireless telephone was issued in to Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray, Kentucky. He applied this patent to "cave radio" telephones and not directly to cellular telephony as the term is currently understood.Cells for mobile phone base stations were invented in 1947 by Bell Labs engineers at AT&T and further developed by Bell Labs during the 1960s. Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held cellular radio devices have been available since 1973. A patent for the first wireless phone as we know today was issued in US Patent Number 3,449,750 to George Sweigert of Euclid, Ohio on June 10th, 1969.

In 1945, the zero generation (0G) of mobile telephones was introduced. 0G mobile phones, such as Mobile Telephone Service, were not cellular, and so did not feature "handover" from one base station to the next and reuse of radio frequency channels.[citation needed] Like other technologies of the time, it involved a single, powerful base station covering a wide area, and each telephone would effectively monopolize a channel over that whole area while in use. The concepts of frequency reuse and handoff as well as a number of other concepts that formed the basis of modern cell phone technology are first described in U.S. Patent 4,152,647 , issued May 1, 1979 to Charles A. Gladden and Martin H. Parelman, both of Las Vegas, Nevada and assigned by them to the United States Government.

This is the first embodiment of all the concepts that formed the basis of the next major step in mobile telephony, the Analog cellular telephone. Concepts covered in this patent (cited in at least 34 other patents) also were later extended to several satellite communication systems. Later updating of the cellular system to a digital system credits this patent.

Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is widely considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973.

The first commercial citywide cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979. Fully automatic cellular networks were first introduced in the early to mid 1980s (the 1G generation). The Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system went online in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1981.

In 1983, Motorola DynaTAC was the first approved mobile phone by FCC in the United States. In 1984, Bell Labs developed modern commercial cellular technology (based, to a large extent, on the Gladden, Parelman Patent), which employed multiple, centrally controlled base stations (cell sites), each providing service to a small area (a cell). The cell sites would be set up such that cells partially overlapped. In a cellular system, a signal between a base station (cell site) and a terminal (phone) only need be strong enough to reach between the two, so the same channel can be used simultaneously for separate conversations in different cells.

Cellular systems required several leaps of technology, including handover, which allowed a conversation to continue as a mobile phone traveled from cell to cell. This system included variable transmission power in both the base stations and the telephones (controlled by the base stations), which allowed range and cell size to vary. As the system expanded and neared capacity, the ability to reduce transmission power allowed new cells to be added, resulting in more, smaller cells and thus more capacity. The evidence of this growth can still be seen in the many older, tall cell site towers with no antennae on the upper parts of their towers. These sites originally created large cells, and so had their antennae mounted atop high towers; the towers were designed so that as the system expanded—and cell sizes shrank—the antennae could be lowered on their original masts to reduce range.

The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.

The first data services appeared on mobile phones starting with person-to-person SMS text messaging in Finland in 1993. First trial payments using a mobile phone to pay for a Coca Cola vending machine were set in Finland in 1998. The first commercial payments were mobile parking trialled in Sweden but first commercially launched in Norway in 1999. The first commercial payment system to mimick banks and credit cards was launched in the Philippines in 1999 simultaneously by mobile operators Globe and Smart. The first content sold to mobile phones was the ringing tone, first launched in 1998 in Finland. The first full internet service on mobile phones was i-Mode introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 1999.

In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.

Until the early 1990s, most mobile phones were too large to be carried in a jacket pocket, so they were typically installed in vehicles as car phones. With the miniaturization of digital components and the development of more sophisticated batteries, mobile phones have become smaller and lighter.

With its use by Nokia as the default ringtone, The Gran Vals by Francisco Tarrega has become arguably the most recognised tune in the world.

TerminologyRelated non-mobile-phone systemsCar phoneA type of telephone permanently mounted in a vehicle, these often have more powerful transmitters, an external antenna and loudspeaker for handsfree use. They usually connect to the same networks as regular mobile phones.Cordless telephone (portable phone)Cordless phones are telephones which use one or more radio handsets in place of a wired handset. The handsets connect wirelessly to a base station, which in turn connects to a conventional land line for calling. Unlike mobile phones, cordless phones use private base stations (belonging to the land-line subscriber), and which are not shared.Professional Mobile RadioAdvanced professional mobile radio systems can be very similar to mobile phone systems. Notably, the IDEN standard has been used as both a private trunked radio system as well as the technology for several large public providers. Similar attempts have even been made to use TETRA, the European digital PMR standard, to implement public mobile networks.Radio phoneThis is a term which covers radios which could connect into the telephone network. These phones may not be mobile; for example, they may require a mains power supply, they may require the assistance of a human operator to set up a PSTN phone call.Satellite phoneThis type of phone communicates directly with an artificial satellite, which in turn relays calls to a base station or another satellite phone. A single satellite can provide coverage to a much greater area than terrestrial base stations. Since satellite phones are costly, their use is typically limited to people in remote areas where no mobile phone coverage exists, such as mountain climbers and mariners in the open seamobile advertising spending will grow but this is not expected to completely stabilize. This has a few implications..VC funded ad players will go through a spending binge to justify their investment and to grow their base but will see lesser ROI. This also means players like Google and Yahoo who are much larger on the web will still maintain a low profile until probably the end of 2009.

- Globally, Android devices might add to the hype, iPhone could be the global #2 or #3 on most networks & Nokia will still lead most developing countries including India.

- More players are expected to enter mobile advertising in 2009

- Global rates for mobile advertising will continue to grow after some brief fall due to the economic crises. This is because low rates are clearly not sustainable for anyone and an average of $0.10 - $0.20 per click will be the norm for most developed markets

- Many advertisers will still be trying out mobile advertising through 2009. Although 2008 did see some significant activity, actual campaigns and revenues were still too low in 2008.

One or two players in this space might be the right targets for acquisitions so expect acquisitions especially when valuations are right now at an all time low. So expect acquisitions in 09.

- Expect Mobile advertising services to move beyond the regular self serve model. Advertisers are expecting more and the small budget advertisers will expect 360 degree service from mobile advertisers..leading some mobile ad companies to move up the value chain.

- Developing markets like India / Indonesia will continue to grow in terms of real volumes of traffic with carriers like Airtel / Vodafone significantly gaining on that [especially in India].

- Carriers will continue to try to experiment with mobile search and mobile advertising but will increasingly be insignificant or probably play a much more passive role in the global mobile advertising value chain.

Some of our past predictions and those that were right and those that were wrong..Most of these were centred around India..

– Social mobile marketing will be big in 08 - we were wrong on this..although social media traffic has grown…the large chunk of social media traffic is still not made a big dent on the mobile advertising space as such.

– SMS will continue to generate substantial traffic. WAP traffic as always is underestimated but will continue to surge with more users expected to logon to the mobile Internet. - We were absolutely right on this…

– Major web portals will unveil their mobile portals. - we were spot on on this prediction

– Players like Vodafone could shakeout the mobile data business offering cheaper data access to consumers. Wireless data could get more affordable — we were partly right..Vodafone has got great advertisements but a lousy product portfolio in India..Innovation is not a part of their strategy yet and they’re loosing to Airtel. Though the bright side is wireless data plans are now more affordable.

– Many innovative mobile VAS applications will be launched free of cost to the consumer powered through mobile advertising. Mobile publishers will begin to take mobile advertising as a serious alternative business model - we were quite correct with this prediction, a number of mobile services (free sms, alerts etc) and apps have been launched last year especially in India and these have significantly increased users traffic usage / ARPUs etc..

– More and more advertisers will begin to test mobile as a medium for marketing. Mobile will get acceptance as the third and more powerful medium than the web. Despite that, we don’t really expect to see drastic shift in the allocation of marketing budgets just yet - we were spot on on this..mobile advertising has taken off but on the overall spending has been slow.

Ccall originator - (or calling party, caller or A-party) a person or device that initiates a telephone call by dialling a telephone number.call waiting - a system that notifies a caller of another incoming telephone call by sounding a sound in the earpiece.called partyCallercalling partyconference call (multi-party call)COCOT

If you need a plan that includes 3G mobiles, then Dodo mobile plans have you covered with a great selection of Nokia mobiles, LG mobiles, Samsung mobiles and offerings from other mobile phone brands. Different mobiles are available for different extra amounts on top of capped plans, with the more expensive capped plans allowing the inclusion of handsets for no extra cost.

The way to get the best value from Dodo mobile plans is to sign up for a 24 month contract. Many capped mobile phone plans require you to sign up for an extended period of time. With Dodo, you will simply pay much less per month by choosing to sign up to a 24 month contr

hello,I found and tried this free unlimited sms to all network website. You can send unlimited texts to all Philippine subscribers.We can also meet new friends and txtmates through discussion and chat.

Digital World

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New Digital Terms :

What isMobile Computing?Mobile Computing is a generic term describing the application of small, portable, and wireless computing and communication devices. This includes devices like laptops, mobile phones, wearable computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with Bluetooth or IRDA interfaces, and USB flash drives.

Aperture Priority: A mode in which a desired lens opening (f-stop) is manually selected and locked in; the camera then chooses an appropriate shutter speed for proper exposure. Used primarily to control depth of field (the range of sharpness) in front of or behind a subject or object.Artifacts: Unwanted effects in the image such as blotches (from over-compression), Christmas tree lights (multi-colored speckles from bright highlights), noise (granularity from underexposure) and other aberrations that sometimes afflict digicam images.

Aspherical Lens: A lens designed to reproduce images better by having its edges flattened so that it is not a perfect sphere, hence: "a" (not) "spherical" (a sphere).Autofocus: The camera automatically focuses on a subject or object at which it is pointed.

Buffer: An temporary electronic storage area where several already-exposed digicam images can wait in line to be processed. This speeds the interval between shots since each photo does not have to be processed before the next one can be taken.

CCD: Charge-coupled device. The sensor array that makes up the imaging surface of the digicam. The more sensors a CCD has, the higher the image resolution will be.CMOS: Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. Used in some digicams instead of CCDs because they have low power requirements and are less expensive.

CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. The colors that are mixed to print pictures on paper. Most ink-jet and dye-sublimation printers use combinations of these colors to reproduce images.

Color Temperature: A method of describing the qualities of warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish) light and measuring it in Degrees Kelvin (°K).

Compact Flash: A matchbook-sized memory card used in many digital cameras today and presently capable of storing over 200MB of information.

Compression: Reducing digicam picture file sizes in the camera after they’re shot, usually according to Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) specifications so more images can be stored on the memory card. The degree of compression can be user-specified on many models depending on the ultimate quality needed.

dpi: Dots-per-inch. Printers lay down multiple dots of ink when printing to reproduce each pixel of the image. The higher the dpi rating of the printer, the better it can define each pixel. Also a measurement of a scanner’s resolution, although a more precise term would be spi (samples-per-inch).

Depth Of Field: The range of sharpness in front of and behind the subject or object focused on.

Digital Zoom: An electronic enlargement of part of the image making it appear to be closer and bigger, simulating an optical zoom lens at a telephoto setting. The image is actually cropped, resulting in loss of surrounding pixels and decreased resolution. In some digicams, interpolation is used to offset this loss. (see Interpolation).

Downsampling: See "Interpolation"

DPOF: Digital Print Order Feature. Allows pictures to be selected in the camera for future direct-from-memory-card printing on photo-finishing machines equipped with this feature.

Dye Sublimation: A type of printing process in which a dye ribbon is heated by the print head creating a gas that hardens onto special paper. This creates soft-edged spots of color that melt into each other and give the appearance of a continuous tone photograph.

EXIF: Exchangeable Image File. The JPEG compression mode used by most digicams.

Exposure Compensation: A feature on most digicams that allows manual override of the camera’s light meter to achieve better exposure under difficult lighting conditions.

External Flash Synch: Allows connection to other flash units instead of (or in addition to) the digicam’s built-in flash. Very useful for experimenting with off-camera lighting effects and for use with studio strobes.

Fixed Focus: The camera’s focus is pre-set to a distance at which most subjects or objects will be in focus from near to far. Not as precise as autofocus.

Flashpath: A floppy disk-sized shell into which a SmartMedia memory card is inserted so that images may be transferred directly to the computer through its floppy drive. Despite its convenience, it requires batteries and is slower than a PC (memory) card reader.

Focal Length Equivalency: Since most users are familiar with 35mm camera lenses, digicam lens specs are frequently stated in those terms. For example, a digicam lens that zooms from 9.2mm to 28mm would be described as 36mm to 110mm (equiv).

IBM MicroDrive: A high capacity (up to a Gigabyte) spinning storage device that can be used with digicams accepting Compact Flash II memory cards.

Info-Lithium: A Lithium-Ion battery that indicates its remaining shooting time in minutes on the digicam’s LCD Monitor screen.

Inkjet: A type of printing in which dots of ink are sprayed onto paper to create the image. Some inkjet printers can lay down 1440 dots of ink per inch, resulting in photo-quality prints (provided that the image has adequate resolution in pixels to begin with).

Interpolation: The process of adding or subtracting pixels to an image (usually in an imaging program) to increase or reduce its size at a desired resolution. Also known as resampling or upsampling and downsampling. Interpolation changes the file size of the image. See also: "Resizing."

ISO Equivalency: A measure of the digicam’s sensitivity to light using conventional film speeds as a yardstick. Most digicams have fixed ISO (International Standards Organization) equivalents but others can be set to sensitivities ranging from 80—640 to achieve adequate exposure under different lighting conditions.

Jaggies: The stair-stepping effect that can be seen in curves and diagonal lines when a picture’s resolution is too low and individual pixels begin to show in the image.JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group (see "Compression").

LCD Monitor: The Liquid Crystal Display color screen on most digicams, usually 1.8 to 2.5 inches measured diagonally and used to check images after they are shot. The LCD monitor can also be used to frame pictures before they are taken and is usually more accurate than the optical viewfinder, though not as convenient to use.

Lens Distortion: An abnormal rendering of lines in an image; most commonly they may appear to be bending inward (pincushion distortion) or outward (barrel distortion). Correctable by using a plug-in in an imaging program.

Lithium-ion (LI-ion): A long-lasting rechargeable battery used in some digicams.

Macro: The ability of a lens to focus just inches away from an object or subject so as to produce big close-ups, sometimes even larger-than-life size.

Manual Focus: The digicam’s focus can be set by the user at any point from near to far or in steps such as 3 feet, 15 feet, Infinity. A useful override feature on some autofocus cameras which sometimes refuse to fire when they cannot focus accurately in very low light or on fast-moving subjects or objects.

Maximum Aperture: A measure of how much light can pass through a lens when its diaphragm is opened fully. Lenses with maximum apertures of f-2 or f-2.8 are categorized as "fast" and can produce correct exposures under lower light than "slow" lenses with maximum apertures of f-3.5 or smaller.

MegaPixel (also MP): One million pixels. When the length times width of a digicam’s pixel array reaches one million, its resolution is then described in MegaPixels. 1,300,000 pixels equals 1.3 MegaPixels.

Memory Card Reader: Allows rapid transfer of images recorded on digicam memory cards to a computer. The memory card —containing a folder of images— shows up as an external drive on the computer’s desktop and the entire folder can be copied over to the hard drive in seconds.

MemoryStick: Sony’s proprietary memory card.

NiMH: Nickel Metal Hydride: A type of digicam rechargeable battery that provides very consistent voltage and is environmentally safe.

Noise: The electronic equivalent of excessive grain in a film image. Usually found in images shot at high ISO settings.

Optical Viewfinder: An optical glass device on the digicam which, when looked through, shows the intended image to be photographed. The best digicams have optical viewfinders in addition to LCD monitors because the LCD can "wash out" in bright sunlight, making it virtually impossible to see the image.

Optical Zoom: A zoom lens which uses movement of lens elements to achieve various fields of view. Regardless of whether the zoom is set for taking pictures at wide-angle or telephoto settings, the resolution of the image remains the same.

Photo CD: A CD-ROM holding about 100 images, each scanned from slides or negatives at five different resolutions. The photographer can then choose the best resolution to achieve the size of a desired photo.

Picture CD: Similar to Photo CD but with only one medium resolution scan for each image.

Pixel: From a contraction of the words Picture Element. The basic element of resolution. Digicam resolution is expressed in pixels (not pixels-per-inch).Pixelation: See "Jaggies."

Plug-in: A small application that can be added (plugged-in) to a program to give it more functionality. For example, a distortion-removal plug-in.

ppi: Pixels-per-inch. A measurement used to describe the size of the final printed image. An image that has a higher number of pixels-per-inch will show more detail than one which has fewer pixels-per-inch.

Pre-Flash: Some digicams fire two flashes, the first adjusts the white balance (see below) and the second exposes the picture. This is different from a red-eye reduction mode in which multiple weak flashes are fired to close down the subject’s iris prior to the actual exposure.

Red-Eye: A phenomenon which occurs when the flash is fired directly into the subject’s eyes in a dimly lit or dark environment. Blood vessels in the back of the eye reflect their color back through the iris of the eye which is usually opened wide in dim light. Most digicams have a flash mode to reduce or eliminate this condition.

Reflex Viewing: The intended image is viewed directly by your eye through the taking lens giving you as close to what you see as you’re apt to find. Also called TTL (through the lens) and SLR (single lens reflex) viewing.

Resizing: In which the size of the image is changed by squeezing pixels together (to make them smaller) or spreading them apart (to make them bigger) without adding or subtracting any. Thus, the image’s file size remains the same. See also: "Interpolation."

Resolution (Res): A measure of how much information a digital camera can record, usually expressed in pixels or MegaPixels and arrived at by multiplying the length (in pixels) times the width (in pixels) of the CCD sensor array.

RGB: Red, Green, and Blue: The primary colors of light which, when mixed in varying proportions can produce all colors. Digital cameras and monitors use RGB to record and display colors.

Shutter Priority: A mode in which a desired shutter speed is manually selected and locked in; the camera then chooses an appropriate lens opening (f-stop) for proper exposure. Used primarily to prevent motion-blur in fast-moving subjects or objects.

Slow Synch: A flash mode in which the image is given some exposure before or after the flash is fired so as to bring out details in the background that would normally be underexposed or not recorded at all.

SmartMedia: Also known as SSFDC (Solid State Floppy Disk Card). A postage stamp-sized memory card used by some digicam manufacturers as an alternative to Compact Flash cards and presently capable of storing up to 64MB of digital image information.

TIFF: Tagged Image File Format. Most digicam images are recorded as TIFFs and then JPEG-compressed in the camera. Some digicams now offer an uncompressed TIFF option so an image can be retrieved in its original state, eliminating the possibility of compression artifacts.

TFT: Thin Film Transistor. A type of digicam monitor display that allows a wider, brighter viewing angle than a standard LCD monitor.

Upsampling: See "Interpolation"

USB: Universal Serial Bus. A computer port to which peripherals can be connected and, when used by a USB-equipped digicam, allows rapid transfer of digital camera images to the computer.

White Balance: In which the color temperature of the scene is measured prior to exposure and electronically adjusted so that white objects will not take on excessive color casts of red, blue or, if shot under most fluorescent lighting, green.

Zoom Lens Apertures: Designated as two maximum apertures

on the lens ring as: 1:2.8—4.0. The first number after the "1" (f-2.8) applies if the lens is in full wide angle position. The second (f-4), if it is at full telephoto. Similarly, minimum apertures will also vary by a full f-stop. If the zoom is set between wide and telephoto, the maximum aperture will fall in the middle, in this case, f-3.5.

ADSLAsymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. A technology for delivering a high bit rate link to customers over ordinary copper wire. Data rates can reach 8Mbps from the exchange to the customer and 640bps in the other direction.

AuthenticationDetermines a user's identity, as well as determining what a user is authorised to access, such as secure electronic information held in financial databases. The most common form of authentication is user name and password, although this also provides the lowest level of security. For further explanation.

BandwidthThe data transfer capacity of a telecommunications channel, usually expressed in terms of the number of bits per second that can be transmitted (a bit being one unit of information). Narrow bandwidth would correspond to a dial-up modem with 2400 to 56,000 bits per second while broadband can extend to more than 10,000 times this rate.

BroadbandHigh-speed data transmission capability. The (OECD) defines broadband as a transmission speed in excess of 256,000 bits per second in both directions. The term is commonly used to refer to Internet access via cable modems, DSL (JetStream, for example) and increasingly, wireless technologies (WiFi).

CABThe Citizens' Advice Bureaux, staffed by volunteers, provide New Zealanders with information to address problems and questions they may have. Further information available at

Creative CommonsAccording to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others to legally build upon and share. Further information available on the Wikipedia website

CommunityThere are a number of ways of defining communities and together they make up the interconnected systems of society. Some approaches include:geographic communities, such as suburbs or towns that are often referred to as "the local communities",communities of interest, identity, or circumstance, such as the business and its various industry sectors and the research communities,the non-profit and voluntary sectors, which are also known as the community sector;ethnic and cultural communities,communities of interest such as those for hobbies, sports or politics,communities of circumstance, such as youth, parenthood, senior citizens or the disabled.

ConnectivityThe ability to use an electronic network to send and receive information between any locations, devices or business services.

Digital divideThe term "digital divide" was coined in the 1990s to describe the perceived growing gap between those who have access to and the skills to use ICT and those who, for socio-economic and/or geographical reasons, have limited or no access. There was a particular concern that ICT would exacerbate existing inequalities. A number of areas of specific concern were identified both here and abroad, namely that people could be disadvantaged by their geographic location, age, gender, culture and/or economic status.

Digital literacyThe ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information.

Disruptive technologyThis term was coined by Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new, low-cost, often simpler technology that displaces an existing sustaining technology. Disruptive technologies are usually initially inferior to the technology that they displace, but their low cost creates a market that induces technological and economic network effects that provide the incentive to enhance them to match and surpass the previous technology. They create new industries, but eventually change the world. Examples include the internal combustion engine, transistors and the Internet.

E-crimeElectronic crime covers offences where a computer or other ICT is used as a tool to commit an offence, is the target of an offence or is used as a storage device in an offence.

e-GIFThe E-government Interoperability Framework is a significant tool to enable agencies to work together electronically in a spirit of collaboration. It allows agencies to focus on the business of integrating their services for people without having to decide on competing technology standards. In the e-government context, interoperability relates specifically to the electronic systems that support business processes between agencies and between government and people and business. It does not mean that a central agency will dictate common systems and processes. Interoperability can be achieved by the application of a framework of policies, standards and guidelines that leave decisions about specific hardware and software solutions open for individual agencies or clusters of agencies to resolve.

E-healthInvolves the electronic enablement of the health and disability support services in order to:empower individuals and their families to manage their own health and participation better;improve the co-ordination and integration of care delivery to individuals; andallow population health initiatives such as mapping notifiable diseases to occur in a timely fashion.Source: Ministry of Health, Advice to the Incoming Minister of Health.

E-learningLearning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers.

GDPGross domestic product is a measure of the size of the economy of a particular territory. It is defined as the total value of all goods and services produced within that territory during a specified period (most commonly, per year).

GIFThe Growth and Innovation Framework was released in February 2002 to set out the government's sustainable economic growth objectives. The framework laid out what the government and the private sector must do to achieve higher sustainable economic growth.Source: Ministry of Economic Development,

ICT sectorIn New Zealand, the ICT sector is an agglomeration of the communications sector, including telecommunications providers, and the information technology sector, which ranges from small software development firms to multi-national hardware and software producers. Source: Ministry of Economic Development,

ICT TaskforceThe ICT Taskforce was established in response to the government's Growth and Innovation Framework. It has four related goals, which are to enhance the existing innovation framework, develop skills and talent, increase global connectedness and focus effort for maximum gain. The Taskforce comprised a tightly focused group of New Zealand ICT business leaders with relevant commercial experience. It reported into the growth potential of New Zealand ICT and identified the collective private sector and government contributions needed to achieve this potential. Published June 2003.

InformationThis term has many meanings depending on the context. For example, it is often related to such concepts as meaning, knowledge, communication, truth, representation, and mental stimulus. See also Information Society.

Information SocietyA term for a society in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. An Information Society may be contrasted with societies in which the economic underpinning is primarily industrial or agrarian. The machine tools of the Information Society are computers and telecommunications, rather than lathes or ploughs.

InnovationThe creation, development and implementation of a new product, process or service, with the aim of improving efficiency, effectiveness or competitive advantage. Innovation may apply to products, services, manufacturing processes, managerial processes or the design of an organisation. It is most often viewed at a product or process level, where product innovation satisfies a customer's needs and process innovation improves efficiency and effectiveness. Innovation is linked to creativity and the creation of new ideas, and involves taking those new ideas and turning them into reality through invention, research and new product development.

Intellectual propertyVery broadly means the legal rights that result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Countries have laws to protect intellectual property, for two main reasons: to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and the rights of the public in access to those creations; and to promote, as a deliberate act of government policy, creativity and the dissemination and application of its results, and encourage the fair trading that contributes to economic and social development. Intellectual property is traditionally divided into two branches: industrial property and copyright. Industrial property includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs and geographic indications of source and copyright includes literary and artistic works.

Inter-modal competitionRefers to competition between dissimilar technologies, such as ADSL and wireless technologies. Intra-modal competition refers to competition between similar technologies.

InteroperabilityThe ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged. Source: Software Engineering Institute,

IPThe Internet Protocol is a network-layer protocol that contains addressing information and some control information that enables packets of data to be routed between hosts on the Internet.Source: Cisco Systems Inc.,

KnowledgeIs built up from interaction with the world, and is organised and stored in each individual's mind. It is also stored on an organisational level within the minds of employees and in paper and electronic records. Two forms of knowledge can be distinguished: tacit, or implicit knowledge, which is held in a person's mind and is instinctively known without being formulated into words; and explicit knowledge, which has been communicated to others and is held in written documents and procedures. Organisations are increasingly recognising the value of knowledge, and many employees are now recognised as knowledge workers.

Knowledge societyA society that creates, shares and uses knowledge for the prosperity and well-being of its people.

MbpsMillions of bits per second or megabits per second, a measure of bandwidth or the total information flow over a given time, over a telecommunications medium. Depending on the medium and the transmission method, bandwidth is also sometimes measured in the Kbps (thousands of bits or kilobits per second) range or the Gbps (billions of bits or gigabits per second) range.

MicroprocessorA complex microcircuit (integrated circuit) or set of such chips that carries out the functions of the processor of an information technology system; that is, it contains a control unit (and clock), an arithmetic and logic unit, and the necessary registers and links to main store and to peripherals.

Next Generation InternetNext Generation Internet is a term used by governments, corporations and educators to describe the future network and the work underway to develop it. The future Internet will be so pervasive, reliable and transparent that it will be taken for granted. It will be a seamless part of life much like electricity or plumbing. However, getting to this will involve exploring technologies and network capacities that are in advance of offerings from commercial providers in terms of bandwidths, communications protocols and services.

OECDThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development comprises 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. Its work covers economic and social issues, from macroeconomics to trade, education, development and science and innovation. Source: OECD,

Phishing“Phishing” is a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. A fake website is created that is similar to that of a legitimate organisation, typically a financial institution such as a bank or insurance company. An email is sent requesting that the recipient access the fake website (which will usually be a replica of a trusted site) and enter their personal details, including security access codes. The page looks genuine, because it is easy to fake a valid web site. Any HTML page on the web can be modified to suit a phishing scheme.Phishing e-mails are often sent to large lists of people, expecting that some percentage of the recipients will actually have an account with the real organisation. The term comes from "fishing," where bait is used to catch a fish. In phishing, e-mail is the bait.

Radio frequencyA location or band on the radio frequency spectrum, such as 800, 900 or 1800Mhz.

RFIDRadio frequency identification first appeared in tracking and access applications during the 1980s. These wireless systems allow for non-contact reading and are effective in manufacturing and other hostile environments where barcode labels may not survive. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including livestock identification and automated vehicle identification systems because of its ability to track moving objects.

SMEsSmall and medium-sized enterprises. There is no official definition of an SME in New Zealand but it is usually taken to be a firm of up to 50 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). SMEs in other countries tend to be much larger than those found in New Zealand (up to several hundred FTEs). New Zealand SMEs are typically individually owned and managed, with few if any specialist managerial staff, and are not part of a larger business enterprise. Firms with fewer than 50 employees constitute 99% of New Zealand enterprises, and account for approximately 49% of total output.

SpamUnsolicited bulk email that is largely commercial in nature.

WSISThe World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in two phases. The first phase took place in Geneva in December 2003 and the second phase will take place in Tunis in November 2005. The objective of the first phase was to develop and foster a clear statement of political will and take concrete steps to establish the foundations for an Information Society for all, reflecting all the different interests at stake. The second phase involves a process of monitoring and evaluation of the progress of feasible actions outlined in Geneva and a concrete set of deliverables that must be achieved by the time the Summit meets again in Tunis in November 2005.